Jay Tovey, CGP, CAPS, president of Jay P. Tovey Co. Inc., Rochester, N.Y., just had a year of 100 percent referrals. Not one of those jobs was bid. More amazingly for Tovey was that he was also able to put into place all the necessary business components to retain a 100 percent client satisfaction rate amongst those jobs, making him the April NAHB Remodeler of the Month.

Starting out with a nail sack, Tovey admits that running his business was something that has been acquired over time. In his early years it was more like a School of Hard Knocks, but now he has a company with a lot of perfected systems. Tovey says, “I have been focusing more on doing better in business, learning more and being more professional. It’s invaluable the education I get from not only the seminars and shows, but also my colleagues I’ve met through the NAHB.”

The big change for Tovey’s business was attending a seminar on the 10 Best Business Practices where the 2008 NAHBR Remodeler of the Year, Jeff Hunt mentioned tracking leads with a spreadsheet. Getting a copy of this, Tovey was able to determine the source of his work and which ones were paying off and which ones weren’t.

“I used a variation of this sheet and what I found out was that around $1 million of our referrals were from trade partners, vendors and the people who see and know the operation of our business,” adds Tovey. “I take that as the highest compliment. These people know our level of quality, they know what we do for our clients, and they know how we treat our partners. Those are the ones that generated most of the work we did.”

Tovey’s business has grown solely from satisfied customers. He has put the customer first and continues to strive toward virtually perfect work to keep the work coming in. One of the ways he has found customers the last few years is through partnerships with local trades. Tovey has found that doing smaller or less appealing jobs for local trades have lead to bigger jobs. For instance, in partnering with a local granite fabricator, Tovey’s team may get demolition work for an existing counter. This project then usually leads to tiling a backsplash or a new bathroom with the same homeowner.